Surge protection may be accomplished by connecting surge protection components between voltage lines that limit the voltage difference between those lines. This clamping effect will limit the voltage at that connection point by drawing current whenever the voltage exceeds the rating of the clamp. By the surge protection component drawing current, this helps protect equipment that is connected downstream from the surge protection component. This protection method may be beneficial for multiple reasons including, for example, ease of installation, the size of the connection conductors and the surge protection component's independence from the size and nature of the equipment being protected.
Surge protection components are sacrificial components in electrical systems. In other words, surge protection components are designed to wear and eventually require replacement. Many surge protection components, such as Metal Oxide Varistors (MOVs), wear out to a short circuit or low ohm value in a very rapid transition. Thus, surge protection components may be protected by fuse elements to ensure power delivery to other equipment in the event of a failure of the surge protection component.
Monitoring the status of these surge protection components may be very important. For example, a protection element that has worn or failed may need to be repaired or replaced such that proper surge protection of downstream equipment can be restored. Many manufacturers of surge protection components include ways to monitor the health, or status, of a surge protection component. For example, a surge protection component may be manufactured to include an internal fuse or switch. In another example, a surge protection component may include filtering capacitors, protection elements connected in parallel, protection elements connected in series, or active protection elements. One example of an active protection element is the shunt voltage regulator described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,856,740.
Multi-mode surge protection devices are devices which comprise a number of surge protection device components within a single package. For example, these “modes” of protection can be connected line-to-line (LL or L-L), line-to-neutral (LN or LN), line-to-ground (LG or L-G), and neutral-to-ground (NG or N-G) across three phases (e.g., A, B, and C). Two example of multi-mode surge protection devices are 7-mode and 10-mode devices.
Thus, a need exists to monitor the status (i.e., the health) of these surge protection components. For example, a monitoring device may need to identify various surge protection device information, such as the type of technology, particular setups, particular configurations, surge capacities, temperature, number and/or type of components, calibration settings, and/or technologies or equipment to which it is connected. This identification may require detail about the exact technology and configuration of the connected product(s). For example, this identification may require detail about the surge protective device technology, the number of protected modes, the amount of installed protection, and the physical location, among other details. Moreover, safety requirements may require a monitoring device to provide isolation between power lines and any user operating the monitoring device.